The Joshua D. Brown Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas celebrated Christmas with a luncheon held at the Riverhill Country Club on Dec. 5.
Members and guests were welcomed by Chapter President Jan Engler, and a delicious buffet was enjoyed, with musical accompaniment provided by cellist Karen Isenhower.
A raffle, the proceeds of which benefitted the Chapter Scholarship Funds, also provided entertainment.
The Chapter also inducted 13 new members with a welcome ceremony and presentation of state symbols: a Texas flag and bluebonnets.
New members are Esther Harllee, Betty Heard, Janet Hooper, Liz Mathes, Aren Neal, Janet Pawlik, Carol Prince, Francoise Sell, Amanda Shoup (transferring from Children of the Republic of Texas), Nicole Taylor, Cynthia Vlasek, Samantha Vlasek and Mary Alice Wood.
The first Chapter meeting of 2024 will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 22 at the First United Methodist Church in Kerrville, located at 321 Thompson Drive.
The speaker for the meeting will be Melanie Ellsworth, 1st Vice President of the Chapter, who will provide guidance on using the website Family-Search.org, which offers a free account to help anyone search and find their family history.
Attendees are encouraged to bring a laptop, cell phone, or tablet to engage in some fun learning activities that the website offers.
Melanie was born in Houston, raised in the small town of Thompsons, Texas and graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg, Texas.
She attended Texas A&M University where she met her husband Kent, and married after her sophomore year. They have six children, five girls and one boy.
They raised their family in Friendswood, Texas and moved to Ingram in 2018 after all the kids were grown and gone. They are the grandparents of 7 grandkids.
At the age of 50, she went back to school and got her degree in education from an online program at Stephen F. Austin University.
She taught 5th grade science in Pearland before moving to the hill country. She writes science and math curriculum for grades kindergarten through 7th and sells it online.
Melanie has been an enthusiastic genealogy researcher for many years, and loves to search for her ancestors and find out their stories.
She loves to play pickleball, garden, volunteer and do any remodeling DIY project. Her latest project has been to finish a large AIRBnB in Ingram.
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas celebrate 14 Honor Days throughout the year, commemorating important events during the Republic Era from 1836 to 1846.
On Jan. 26 we honor Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798-1859), the Father of Education in Texas.
Lamar fought with distinction at the Battle of San Jacinto, and in 1838 was elected president of the Republic of Texas by a landslide, after having served as Secretary of War of the Republic, as Vice President under Sam Houston, and representative to the Texas Legislature, as well as Minister to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
He is best known for establishing a fund to support public education and convincing the legislature to set aside land for schools in each county, and also 50 leagues of land for the support of two universities, which later became Texas A&M University and the University of Texas (at Austin).
He also founded the Texas State Library during his term (now the Texas State Library and Archives Commission), and approved the design of the Texas State Seal in 1839. He is buried at Morton Cemetery in Richmond, Texas.
The DRT is the oldest women’s patriotic organization in Texas and is dedicated to the preservation and education of Texas History.
Anyone interested in Texas History, or in tracing their ancestry back to the Republic period is welcome to attend the meeting.
For more information, contact Registrar Judy McVay at [email protected], or at 830-537-3742.
